Oh dear...foiled again. Now I have more books vying for attention today-a lovely thing really. The lovely people at Random House Children's books UK with particular thanks to Jasmine arrange for books to be delivered to Storyshack for review which is an amazing honour and total privilege.

﻿But I really do have to do my marking for Faculty too!! Mix of marking + reading methinks.﻿

I do have to confess...I've already read HERMELIN as told by Mini Grey (who also wrote 'Biscuit Bear' amongst others).It's a delightful book-I know I often use that word but it really is!) about a mouse detective. Animal detectives seem to be a recurring theme this month. He is a very kind mouse who does all sorts of good deeds for his street thanks to his detective skills. There's a wonderful picture of all the characters in there at the beginning. I love the detail and I think you will too. There's lots of looking to be done so it's a lovely book for sharing too. For classes I would have thought it would be a great for many things as books always are BUT give real purpose for writing. He comes across a typewriter:"When I saw this typewriter my paws tingled slightly and I knew I could write with it. I could write labels. I would write lists. I would write letters. I could write ANYTHING."Well, with that sentence there must be many ways in to writing for children I think. I can imagine lots of notes and letters around the class and school thanks to Hermelin. There's also an interesting twist in the story due to ...well I'm not going to tell you because you can find out yourself! I hope there might be more-there's definitely scope to write your own adventures for Hermelin after reading it and hopefully Mini Grey might too.

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Sarah Gallagher

Avid reader, sometimes a headteacher AND founder of Story shack. A place where you can release your imagination and see where it takes you....readingwritingbook makingplayingbecause everyone deserves to imagine and create